AFRICA

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria on Monday prepared for its first major prosecutions of suspects linked to the Boko Haram conflict in closed-door trials at a military base. The defendants have all been arrested and detained since the start of the Islamist insurgency in the country’s northeast in 2009. The …

Hammanskraal, South Africa | AFP | Time is running out for 95-year-old Phillip Mabelane. For 40 years he has waited to discover the truth of how his son died at the hands of police during South Africa’s apartheid era. Now the reopening of a similar case has given him hope that …

Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | Liberia will hold presidential and legislative elections on October 10. Here are the key points explaining how the election will work and when the results will be known. – US model – Africa’s first republic was founded by freed slaves from the United States and …

Monrovia, Liberia | AFP | Liberians go to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new president after 12 years under Africa’s first elected female leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Here are five points that define the campaign: – Sirleaf steps aside – Sirleaf unexpectedly swept the vote in 2005 and …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Rebels from a Ugandan-dominated group on Monday attacked a UN military base in DR Congo’s unstable east, killing one peacekeeper and injuring 12 others, the UN mission said. The attack took place in Beni where UN soldiers have been battling the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), …

Rabat, Morocco | AFP |  Engineers in Morocco are preparing to test the Arab world’s first high-speed railway this week with trains reaching 320 kilometres (200 miles) per hour, the country’s rail office said Monday. One train reached 275 kph (170 mph) on Monday along a stretch of track between …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP |  Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Monday stripped one of the top candidates to succeed him of a cabinet post, as the battle to replace the long-ruling leader intensifies. Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who also doubled as minister of justice, was replaced as minister by ruling ZANU-PF …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Kenyan police lobbed tear gas at opposition supporters who protested around the country on Monday to demand a reform of the election commission before new polls are held later this month. Thousands gathered in the capital and the western opposition stronghold Kisumu, while smaller demonstrations …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | The speaker of Ethiopia’s lower house of parliament announced his resignation without giving any reason on Sunday. Abadula Gemeda was the speaker of the House of People’s Representatives from 2010 and was previously army chief of staff and president of the country’s most-populous region, Oromia. …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday extended for two months a unilateral ceasefire in the war-torn regions of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, state media said. The decision, extending the truce to December 31, came days after the United States lifted a 20-year trade embargo …